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Tucson Man Sentenced 5 Years Imprisonment for Online ID Fraud

A Tucson man of a criminal gang that used 4,500 illegally acquired PINs and account numbers to withdraw around $600,000 from ATMs faces imprisonment for over five years as announced on May 2, 2008.

David C. Bury, a US District Judge has given the judgment against 27 year old Robbin Shea Brown of a 66 months jail detention following a plea on twin counts, conspiring to carry out crime against the US and committing identity theft.

According to Spokeswoman, Sandy Raynor, the US Attorney's Office, Brown admitted guilt in November 2007. He will also pay to compensate the losses to the affected banks, forfeit property amassed as a result of his crime and undergo supervised release for three years, as reported by AzStarNet on June 3, 2008.

Earlier, Brown was arrested on October 26, 2005 along with 16 other individuals from Tucson on similar charges of conspiring to carry out crime against the US and of committing identity theft. In addition, they were also charged of conspiring to carry out money laundering over the Internet, committing fraudulent activities related to access devices, authentication information, identification documents, and then aiding and supporting those crimes.

The gang employed all the fraud methods, carried out via the Internet, to extort money from computer users. They also employed phishing tactics by sending vicious links to potential victims. Furthe,r they used different spamming methods to obtain the personal information of their targets. The offenders in foreign countries too obtained the personal data through different scams including pharming, phishing and spamming unwitting consumers.

Prosecutors say the Brown and the other defendants then created fake cards and embedded the data digitally on magnetic strips to use them to withdraw money from cash machines in Tucson. The connivance involved around 4,500 fraudulent payment cards and $300,000 was transferred to the overseas accounts.

Moreover, with the growing popularity of e-mail services, spammers are increasingly exploiting these services. For instance, tax rebates introduced in the US spawned an unusual number of e-mail scams, including one pretending to be an Internal Revenue Service tax refund that actually diverted users to a malicious site.